


Powerless in the Face of Love

by SereneSorrow



Category: Powerless (TV 2017)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-02
Updated: 2017-05-02
Packaged: 2018-10-27 02:51:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,467
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10800168
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SereneSorrow/pseuds/SereneSorrow
Summary: This is NOT how Emily thought her first day at Wayne Security would go.When you first touch your soulmate a matching mark appears on the skin that touched, along with a burst of agony in your nerves as your cells re-align to this specific pattern, because Love Hurts.





	Powerless in the Face of Love

**Author's Note:**

> Wrote this on April 20th, but I wanted to add a bunch more to it, but then I had a busy couple of days and I was just getting around to working on it again with the hope of posting it by April 27th, when I found out Powerless was apparently canceled, and that made me sad so I didn't want to work on it anymore. So it's still not what I wanted it to be, maybe I'll write a sequel or something later when I'm feeling better about it.

     Okay, so the derailed train was a setback, but Emily wasn't going to let a little near death experience ruin her first day of working at Wayne Security. This was the chance she'd been waiting for, to help make people feel safe in a world where giant starfish covering their houses in green goo was an everyday nuisance. Stepping out of the elevator into the impressive sight of her new workplace Emily smiled wide and made her way into her next great adventure.  
     “Emily Locke?” The blonde woman who approached her right away asked.  
     “I'm so sorry I'm late! My train went _literally_ off the rails-”  
     “I'm going to stop you there because I'm assuming you lived, and Mr. Wayne is waiting for you.” She said. A little rude but Emily was late, maybe this woman really disliked tardiness or something. No problem, she could make up for this, it wasn't the end of the world.  
     “So I didn't get your name actually...” Emily inquired.  
     “Jackie, I'm Mr. Wayne's Assistant. He needs a lot of assisting. You'd think the head of Wayne Security would actually know what his job around here is but we can't have everything I suppose.”  
     Emily was a bit shocked by Jackie's attitude, but some people were just really negative, she'd met a lot of negative people over the years. _Maybe there was something about her that inspired it? No, that couldn't be it_. Maybe Jackie was just having a _really_ bad day, Mr. Wayne was probably a great boss. _He wouldn't be the head of Wayne Security if he really didn't know his job, right?_  
     Jackie let her into an office decorated with sleek furniture and a framed skyline of Gotham City on the wall. Mr. Wayne was standing with his back to them looking out the window when Jackie announced her, it was very dramatic and exciting. Almost theatrical really, Mr. Wayne must have a whimsical side. Oh, she knew working here was just going to be great!  
     “Sir, Emily Locke is here.” Jackie said on her way out of the office again.  
     “I Just want to thank you again for this opportunity, Mr. Wayne.” Emily said immediately.  
     “Please, call me Van.” He said with a dramatic spin to face her, holding out a hand for her to shake.  
     _Oh, definitely whimsical! This was going to be so great!_ Emily grinned as she shook his hand. A flood of sudden sparks lighting up her hand with pain startled the smile from her face and she and Van's gazes both dropped to their hands as the edges of a blue mark appeared where their hands still touched, edged in red irritated skin. Van dropped her hand suddenly and stepped back, staring at the mark.  
     “Well this is... really unexpected. Even more great to meet you though Van!” Emily said excitedly.  
     “Uh, right, right, so anyway, I'm not gonna lie to you. Business at Wayne Security is down, and I am looking to you, as our new Director of R &D to come up with a big idea.” Van said as he moved to sit at his desk.  
     “Wait a minute, are we just ignoring this? What just happened?” Emily said in confusion as Van seemed to brush off the whole event.  
     “This is work Emily, you're just starting your first day and you want to what? Take the day off for a date? Unprofessional Emily, unprofessional. Now you need to whip this team into shape, they've got talent but they are just missing a you to motivate them.”  
     “I promise, I will not let you down. When my dad's flower shop was struggling he told me that-”  
     “Dying to hear the end of that story,” Van interrupted, “but oh, look, my assistant's motioning to me. I must have a call. Well show yourself out and get on to work Emily, I'm counting on you.” he said, turning his chair back to her so he was facing the window as he picked up his phone.  
     “Uh, okay. I'll just...” Emily said as she made her way out of the office. “Go on out here I guess.” she finished to herself as she shut the door behind her.  
     “Jackie!” The shout echoed out through the wall as well as over the intercom on Jackie's desk.  
     Jackie jumped up and headed for the office Emily was still standing outside of. “What did you do?” She asked with a clear look of confusion.  
     “Uh, I- well...” eventually Emily just held up her palm for Jackie to see the clearly new soulmark.  
     “Oh, great. He's going to be even more impossible now. Come on, I'll show you around and deal with him later.”  
     “Well wait, if he needs you for something you should go.” Emily said with concern for her soulmate.  
     “He just wants someone to listen to his rants about how this derails all his plans, and now he'll never be moved to the Gotham office, and who's this nobody the universe thinks is qualified to be his soulmate. Blah Blah Blah. Then he'll have me spying on you all day, and he'll probably make me go out and buy him a pair of gloves too.” Jackie complained.  
     “Oh. Well I guess I can't expect everyone to just be waiting to make plans for their career futures until they meet their soulmates, and it's kind of sweet that he wants to know what I'm like enough to have someone spying on me?” Emily said more to herself than an actual question. After all, she may be a positive person but that didn't mean she believed in soulmate fairy tale endings. People didn't just run off planning weddings the day they met their soulmates.  
     With a look at her like she's some kind of odd creature Jackie says “Starting to see what you two have in common. You're both delusional. Come on, time to meet the crew.”  
     Walking into the lab Emily lowered her hand and tried to put her thoughts of her soulmate aside for the moment. She had work to do, she didn't just have to impress her new boss, now she had to show her soulmate just what she was capable of.  
     Three hours later, after meeting her new staff and getting off to a surprisingly bad start (that she wouldn't let hold her back, _no way_ ), Jackie reappeared with a stack of papers she promptly dropped on Emily's desk.  
     “Human resources needs you to fill out this Soulmates In The Workplace form. Need to make sure you weren't hired or promoted for your connections and all that.”  
     “Okay, I will do that, how is Van anyway? Did he actually ask you to go out and buy him gloves?” Emily asked.  
     “He did. Didn't like any of the the choices. Locked himself in his office. That man throws more tantrums than my daughter, good luck with that by the way.” Jackie said as Emily started looking over the form.  
     “This is a lot of questions, is this really necessary? Van and I never even met before today.”  
     “Well you are the fifth Head of R&D we've had in the past couple of months, it's suspicious enough to those HR reps.” Jackie explained before heading back to her desk.  
     “Fifth?” Emily asked herself.  
     “You fired four people before you got to me?” Is what she asked Van, after she barged into his office.  
     “Technically one was crushed by rubble before he started the job, so that's only three.”  
     “Don't you think that's something I should be made aware of?” Emily crossed her arms as Van gave her his attention.  
     “You want the real scoop? You want to pop the hood on this van and see what's inside?”  
     “Yes.” Emily said just a little doubtfully.  
     “You, and your predecessors are only here to come up with a big idea to get me out of this God-forsaken city and promoted to the Gotham office. I've had this promotion snatched out from under me for years! That darned Bob Lackey and his Wayne Light Lime! That corner office should have been mine!”  
     “I have no intention of doing my job poorly Van, but you can't just expect results without sharing all the information I need to know to succeed.” Emily explained exasperatedly.  
     With an exaggerated flop back into his desk chair Van sighed. “Alright, fine. Look, I wasn't supposed to say this, but Wayne Security is in trouble. We haven't had any good ideas in months and Bruce is shutting us down, I'm being sent to work at WayneChem in Dakota City. Do you have any idea how many supervillains fall in chemical vats? I do not want to be responsible for creating the next crop of clown henchmen!”  
     “Okay. I am not demoralized. I'm just going to take five real quick, and then we will come up with an idea that Bruce Wayne himself will be jealous of.” Emily was trying not to feel defeated, but the whole division being fired and her soulmate transferred out of state while she lost a job on the first day? That was a big obstacle to overcome.  
     “Hey, see if you can find Jackie, she's was supposed to be back with more gloves for me to test out by now!” Van called after her.  
     Emily left the Van's office with a heavy sigh and glanced around the sea of workstations. Everyone either quickly glanced away without meeting her eyes or stared back at her with open dislike. So clearly she wasn't making a good first impression.  
     “Oooooh! He's such a piece of work! I don't know how I'm supposed to deal with him!” Emily said, storming out onto the balcony.  
     “Problems are just opportunities dressed in work clothes.” Jackie quoted from Emily's copy of Wayne or Lose. “You realize that this doesn't mean anything, right?”  
     “Jackie you're right! Van may be a selfish, self-centered man who doesn't seem to notice that the rest of us are people, but that's why he needs me! I'm supposed to challenge him to do better, and he's supposed to challenge me to work hard and not to give up! That's why we're soulmates! Jackie you're a genius.” Emily said excitedly.  
     “Not the point I was making.” Jackie said as an evil laugh cackled through the sky behind them. “We should probably go inside now that there's an evil pumpkin flying around out here. I wish we knew Jack-O-Lantern was around before we saw him.”  
     “Yeah, that would save a lot of lives.” Emily suddenly realized, that was it! The idea she needed to motivate her employees, and the idea Van needed to get him noticed by his cousin! “Guys! I have an idea!” She shouted as she ran back inside.  
     “Oh great, the boss has another idea. What is it this time, use Ron's Kryptonite glass to build Kryptonite Greenhouses?” Teddy asked.  
     “No. Wait, would that have a positive effect the plants?” Everyone looked like they'd never bothered to consider that idea. “Okay, I was thinking, if we could change Wendy's Emily Alert to detect supervillains by scent then we could market an early warning system!” Emily announced.  
     Suddenly Van appeared out of nowhere. “Well I think that's a great idea! Hey I have an idea of my own! How about you all get this Emily Alert thingamajig working, or you're all fired? Sound good? Sounds good. Get to work team!” Van disappeared as fast as he appeared leaving them all speechless.  
     “Uh, you guy's get started, I'm just going to go see if I can find out why he just said that.” Emily was never very good at lying but she didn't want everyone panicking about possible unemployment. It took her a while to get through the crowd of suddenly confused employees, trying to distract them with the new design for the Emily Alert helped but it was still nearly an hour before she made it to Jackie's desk.  
     “So, good first day?” Jackie asked.  
     “No,” Emily scoffed, “just when I thought I was starting to understand Van. What was up with that announcement?”  
     “Who knows why that man does anything. Get used to his impulsive outbursts. They're about the only time he ever gets anything done.” Jackie stood up and came around the desk, pushing Emily toward Van's door. “Go on now, solve all our problems in one day like a good little overachiever.”  
     “Fine okay, I'm going- wha-” Emily stumbled at another firm shove from Jackie. “What the heck was that Van?” Emily asked, storming into his office once again.  
     “I have to hand it to you Emily, you are a great motivator. Everyone is working double time on your idea.” Van said as he inexpertly strummed a ridiculous blue guitar.  
     “Van, they're working hard because you told everyone they're fired if they don't get this project working!”  
     “Well they're fired either way if I don't have anything impressive enough for Bruce.”  
     “Okay... okay...” Emily sat down with a sigh. “So how much time do we have to finish the project and get it to Bruce?”  
     “Oh, about a day. He's pretty sure about how useless we are, and he said something about being out of contact for the next week or so for a ski trip.” Van said, setting the guitar aside.  
     “A day! We're going to have to work all night!” Emily jumped up again and raced out of the office to get back to her team.  
***3 Months Later***  
     “Actually, Bruce was wondering how you turned the place around so fast, coming up with so many innovative ideas in a row. You really got Wayne Security back on track and he wondered what your secret is.” Tim Drake said.  
     “Ah. Well that would be my new Head of R&D, Emily Wayne.” Van announced as Emily joined them with two glasses, one of which she handed to her new husband.  
     Tim grinned. “Well if you keep it up you'll have an office in Gotham in no time, I'm sure.”  
     “I doubt it. I couldn't imagine a better place to work than Charm City.” Van said.  
     “The team we have in Wayne Security is like family, I don't think any of us are ready to move on yet, Tim. I'm sure you've had that feeling before?” Emily asked the teenage heir.  
     “Yeah, I know what that's like. Sometimes people just mesh well. Here's to your continued success.” Tim toasted the newlyweds.  
     Around her champagne glass Emily glanced over at her soulmate. She and Van were a great team, balancing each other's faults and challenging each other to do better, and turning Wayne Security around in the process. Okay, so maybe she was living a fairy tale ending with her soulmate after all, but what was wrong with that?

**Author's Note:**

> Don't know if I made Emily too ridiculously happy at the beginning or something, it sort of seemed like it, and Van seems kind of mean right after they get their marks but I was trying to portray Van's brushing things off joking randomness, not like anger or cruelty or anything...plus he is kind of scrambling because he has all these plans for moving to Gotham and if he has a soulmate here at Wayne Security that interferes with all the plans he's been dreaming of for years so he's freaking out on the inside.  
> If WayneChem exists I didn't know that, I just kinda guessed/made it up. And Dakota City was a random location choice.


End file.
